Dead Sleep by Greg Iles

This is the first time I have read a book in a weekend for what seems like forever, but really has to be just a month or so. Dead Sleep was the perfect selection to jump start my promise to myself to fit in more reading wherever I could and it was a wonderfully well-written suspense novel. I give it an A-.

From Amazon:
They are called "The Sleeping Women." A series of unsettling paintings in which the nude female subjects appear to be not asleep, but dead. Photojournalist Jordan Glass has another reason to find the paintings disturbing...The face on one of the nudes is her own-or perhaps the face of her twin sister, who disappeared and is still missing. At the urging of the FBI, Jordan becomes both hunter and hunted in a search for the anonymous artist-an obsessed killer who seems to know more about Jordan and her family than she is prepared to face...

The idea of this book and the fact that a killer is releasing paintings of his victims is something that I have never come across. Mr. Iles does a great job of providing the reader with clues to make the ending not come totally out of left field but still surprises you. I also think the author does a fantastic job writing from a female's point of view considering that he is a man. I don't think it is an easy thing for an author to do, and Mr. Iles pulls it off excellently. There was one bone I had to pick with the story and that is the amount of involvement Jordan is in the investigation. Never would the FBI or any police force allow a citizen to be that involved with the case and Jordan seems somewhat like a spoiled brat, believing she has the right to know every little detail and be involved in every meeting. I was able to suspend my belief, however, because the book was that enjoyable.

There was one passage in particular that I loved. It doesn't have much to do with the suspense aspect of the story, but talks about Jordan growing up as a child. Her family didn't have much money, but her mother always allowed them to indulge in books. Jordan recalls the Scholastic book order that came each month in class and how much fun she had looking through the paper magazine making her selections and how excited she was when her teacher would check each child's order off from the list she had on her desk. I remember that distinctively from my childhood and it was one of my favorite parts of school. Last year when I was doing my student teaching, one of my favorite parts was organizing the Scholastic book order and passing the books out to the students. I loved seeing them so excited over books, though I was disappointed to see so many toys and computer games that were available for purchase through the order.

All right, enough rambling from me. I am going to go to bed and try and shake this bug that I have. I am not sure what it is, but I am leaning towards a sinus infection of the flu. Today was spent relaxing a bit and I hope this is helping towards my recovery. I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and Happy Reading!